“These are individuals purporting to be experts but whose views are inconsistent with established knowledge. Fake experts have been used extensively by the tobacco industry who developed a strategy to recruit scientists who would counteract the growing evidence on the harmful effects of second-hand smoke.”

We have seen many examples of climate denialists producing long lists of fake experts, for example the Oregon Petition and the Wall Street Journal 16. Now we have yet another of these lists of fake experts. 49 former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) employees (led by Harrison Schmitt, who was also one of the Wall Street Journal 16) have registered their objection to mainstream climate science through the most popular medium of expressing climate contrarianism – a letter. As is usually the case in these climate contrarian letters, this one has no scientific content, and is written by individuals with not an ounce of climate science expertise, but who nevertheless have the audacity to tell climate scientists what they should think about climate science.

It’s worth noting that when the signatories Meet The Denominator, as is also always the case, their numbers are revealed as quite unimpressive. For example, over 18,000 people currently work for NASA. Without even considering the pool of retired NASA employees (all signatories of this list are former NASA employees), just as with the Oregon Petition, the list accounts for a fraction of a percent of the available pool of people.

This letter, as these letters always do, has gone viral in the climate denial blogosphere, and even in the climate denial mainstream media (Fox News). But why exactly is this letter being treated as major news? That is something of a mystery. Or it would be, if the behavior of the climate denial community weren’t so predictable.

The Signatories

Obviously this letter first gained attention because the signatories are former NASA employees. They are being touted as “top astronauts, scientists, and engineers” and “NASA experts, with more than 1000 years of combined professional experience.” Okay, but in what fields does their expertise lie?

Based on the job titles listed in the letter signatures, by my count they include 23 administrators, 8 astronauts, 7 engineers, 5 technicians, and 4 scientists/mathematicians of one sort or another (none of those sorts having the slightest relation to climate science). Amongst the signatories and their 1,000 years of combined professional experience, that appears to include a grand total of zero hours of climate research experience, and zero peer-reviewed climate science papers. You can review the signatories for yourself here.

Contrarians for Censoring Climate Science

These 49 former NASA employees wrote this letter to the current NASA administrator requesting that he effectively muzzle the climate scientists at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).

“We, the undersigned, respectfully request that NASA and the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) refrain from including unproven remarks in public releases and websites.”

Since nothing in science is ever proven, apparently these individuals simply don’t want NASA GISS to discuss science in their public releases or websites anymore. What specifically do they object to?

“We believe the claims by NASA and GISS, that man-made carbon dioxide is having a catastrophic impact on global climate change are not substantiated, especially when considering thousands of years of empirical data. With hundreds of well-known climate scientists and tens of thousands of other scientists publicly declaring their disbelief in the catastrophic forecasts, coming particularly from the GISS leadership, it is clear that the science is NOT settled.”

Ah yes, the ever-more-popular goalpost shift of “catastrophic climate change”. The letter of course provides no examples of NASA GISS public releases or websites claiming that CO2 is having a catastrophic impact on climate change, and of course provides zero examples of these mysterious “hundreds of well-known climate scientists and tens of thousands of other scientists” who disbelieve these unspecified catastrophic claims. As is always the case with these types of letters, it is all rhetoric and no substance.

“As former NASA employees, we feel that NASA’s advocacy of an extreme position, prior to a thorough study of the possible overwhelming impact of natural climate drivers is inappropriate.

“We request that NASA refrain from including unproven and unsupported remarks in its future releases and websites on this subject. At risk is damage to the exemplary reputation of NASA, NASA’s current or former scientists and employees, and even the reputation of science itself.”

If NASA administrators were to censor the organization’s climate scientists at the behest of a few of its former employees who have less climate science experience and expertise combined than the summer interns at NASA GISS, that would really damage NASA’s exemplary reputation.

Expertise Matters

Let’s be explicit about our choice here.

On the one hand we have a bunch of former administrators, astronauts, and engineers who between them have zero climate expertise and zero climate science publications.

On the other hand we have the climate scientists at NASA GISS who between them have decades, perhaps even centuries of combined professional climate research experience, and hundreds, perhaps even thousands of peer-reviewed climate science publications.

This is not a difficult choice for NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Jr. We would not be surprised if he gave the ‘skeptic’ letter one look and tossed it in the recycle bin.

Climate contrarians clearly disagree, but in the real world, expertise matters. The fact that these 49 individuals used to work at NASA does not make them experts in everything NASA does. If the issue at hand were another moon landing, then by all means, the opinions of many of these individuals would be well worth considering. But we’re not talking about space shuttle launches or moon landings here, we’re talking about climate science. This is a subject which, to be blunt, these 49 individuals clearly don’t know the first thing about.

To those who are making so much noise about this letter – the next time you are at a medical center in need of major surgery, will you go see a pediatrician? Or as a more relevant analogy, will you visit your neighbor, the retired dentist, and ask him to perform the surgery for you?

Somehow we suspect you will insist that the surgery be performed by a surgeon with relevant expertise. The reason is of course that expertise matters. Perhaps you would be wise to consider that fact the next time a group of climate contrarians with little to no expertise publish another of these letters.

As we suggested to William Happer, if climate contrarians want their opinions to be taken seriously, they should engage in real science within the peer-review system that works for every scientific field. That is how science advances – not through letters filled with empty rhetoric, regardless of how many inexpert retirees sign them.

“NASA sponsors research into many areas of cutting-edge scientific inquiry, including the relationship between carbon dioxide and climate. As an agency, NASA does not draw conclusions and issue ‘claims’ about research findings. We support open scientific inquiry and discussion.

“Our Earth science programs provide many unique space-based observations and research capabilities to the scientific community to inform investigations into climate change, and many NASA scientists are actively involved in these investigations, bringing their expertise to bear on the interpretation of this information. We encourage our scientists to subject these results and interpretations to scrutiny by the scientific community through the peer-review process. After these studies have met the appropriate standards of scientific peer-review, we strongly encourage scientists to communicate these results to the public.

“If the authors of this letter disagree with specific scientific conclusions made public by NASA scientists, we encourage them to join the debate in the scientific literature or public forums rather than restrict any discourse.”

That’s the reason we don’t use the term ‘denier’ – not because it’s inaccurate, but because deniers complain about it in order to distract from the science. Note that I didn’t use the term ‘skeptic’ though, because it’s obviously not an accurate term.

Since this is a repost, Secular Animist’s remarks have missed their target. But the point he has been making here and elsewhere on CP is still absolutely correct. Let’s call them what they are: liars, propagandists, and/or dupes. Fox does not deserve to be called ‘mainstream media’, even with as little prestige as that title now carries. It’s propaganda – through and through. Very well funded. Lots of viewers. But it is still propaganda.

Our Dunning-Krugerites, particularly the political sub-species, love the ‘CO2 is plant food’ canard. After uttering it, their bland, puffy, moon-faces (the ‘lean and hungry look’ is definitely out) light up with unsuppressed glee at their cleverness and ‘savviness’. It happens a lot these days, and one’s already firm conviction that our species has gone over the top, and is on a one-way sleigh-ride to Palookaville, hardens a little more.

It’s important to note that the person who “organized” this letter is the head of the Coal Industry funded group “plants need CO2″.

Of course the coal industry more than any faces is threatened by action on climate change (the fact that this involves severe threats to human civilization is obviously of no importance to the industry).

Here’s the article linking this letter with the coal industry front group:

This letter caught fire across the internet and was touted as further proof that climate science is dubious at best and deliberate falsification at worst. The usual set of posters on the comment boards jumped all over this evidence of experts fighting back against unproven questionable science.
All so predictable. I wonder how these folks will feel about posterity having their names on record as demanding a stop to climate science studies? We used to assume severe climate disruption long after all us middle age folks were long since dead. Well, WRONG!
The evidence of severe climate disruptions and the beginning of big feed backs appears to be all to real in just this decade. So all the deniers who hope to be safely tucked in their graves before people can call them out for their negative impacts on future generations, they are not as safe as they might think. Even the retired NASA clowns who signed this letter may be around in 20 years, being as so many can retire young. Imagine the year 2025, the climate impacts in Mid America and these guys having their names on record as sworn deniers of reality. A reality that in a decade may be ruining the lives of millions!

Let’s put the astronauts in this group in a press conference and ask for volunteers from among them to serve as crew members on the maiden flight to Mars onboard a spacecraft designed, engineered, and built by 49 climate scientists.

1) Almost everyone labeled themselves as JSC, i.e., NASA Houston, coincidentally a center of the petroluem industry. Of course, some of them may have moved elsewhere.

2) TX and the rest of the SouthWest have had interesting times this last year with heat and drought. Apparently they didn’t notice.

3) These people had nice careers courtesy of US taxpayers (and that’s fine), but I’d suggest they’ve just put themselves on the “do not ever listen to anything they say, ever again” list. They all have to be well-educated enough to know better.

4) I’m sure they all love manned space-flight … but that’s something that’s going to disappear forever if we do not solve the conjoined climate+energy problem, because space travel will have to compete with other priorities, like building dikes.

Johnson Space is not a hotbed of climate science, unlike Goddard, JPL, Ames. Even so, their web pages list occasional climate research, such as, Evidence of climate Change as Seen from Low Earth Orbit. presented in 1999. http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/GSA/CARUANAROBINSNWLKNSNWILLIS.HTM
The men who signed the letter are all engineers engaged in building the shuttle. Why do they think they know anything about science of earth systems? They believed a song and dance somebody gave them.

And plants need CO2? There’s a plot to take CO2 away from plants? Beyond silly.

We need a couple of James O’Keefe exposing climate fraudsters promoters.

Get Fox and WSJ to tout a NASA expert report denying global warming which turns out to be from the meat cutters of the Nebraska Animal Slaughterhouse Advocates who have an agenda of promoting more meat eating, and arguing the drought in Texas isn’t real, but a Texas rancher conspiracy to drive up beef prices.

After all, these editors and political leaders will grab at anything to write another headline denying man having any power to change anything on the Earth because the Earth is so massive and man so puny.